Self-proclaimed "technogeeks" at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, after determining the nature of the cybersecurity threat, have created programs to tackle them and, most importantly they say, surprise would-be cyber crooks.
Officials at DARPA say the agency's sole mission since its inception in 1958 has been to prevent technological surprises. Two of the agency's recent cybersecurity programs, called CRASH and PROCEED, were created for that purpose.
CRASH - the Clean-slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts program - seeks to build new computer systems that resist cyberattacks. After successful attacks they learn from the attack, adapt and repair themselves. The program evolved from a workshop DARPA held earlier this year that pulled together experts in cybersecurity and operating-system as well as infectious-disease biologists.

As part of its Deep Learning program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA) is exploring recent breakthroughs in the ability of machines to learn and assess places and objects.

The need for such research is being driven by the vast amount of data that's become available to Defense commanders and analysts from new types of sensors. For warfighters, the data has to be quickly and correctly analyzed. Currently, that's done by highly trained human operators. But as sensor capabilities expand, DARPA says sophisticated, powerful machines with the ability to imitate, and even surpass, human perceptual capabilities will be needed.

They're building applications that will allow computers to detect and classify objects and activities. So far, the results hold promise for achieving human-level-or-better analysis.

When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says it's ramping up a new Transformer program, they're not talking about transferring AC to DC.... They mean transformers, like the toys, turned movie heroes. Only in the case of DARPA, it's flying cars.

DARPA says their Transformer program will attempt to combine the advantages of ground vehicles and helicopters into a single vehicle. Six vendors will participate in a 12-month effort to develop a robust ground vehicle that can transform into an air vehicle that can take-off and land vertically. It should be able to efficiently travel 250 nautical miles on land and in the air, or any combination, without a dedicated pilot, while carrying up to 1,000 pounds.

The benefits to warfighters would be numerous, including better resupply operations and quicker medical evacuations.

Agencies are turning to innovation challenges as a way to solve problems and get people from outside the government involved in coming up with solutions. The White House launched Challenge.gov Tuesday and 15 agencies already are using the platform to hold contests. DoD has four challenges on the platform looking at a variety of issues.

DARPA is one agency that recognizes cyber threats are just as likely to come from within the network. The agency has posted a solicitation on Fed Biz Ops looking for what they call novel approaches to insider threat detection. The Defense Advanced Research Agency is looking for a way to increase the accuracy, rate and speed of detection. The Cyber Insider Threat (CINDER) program will stop adversaries from operating within government and military networks before they can get access.

One government agency is attempting to re-invent computing. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - or DARPA - has started the Ubiquitous High Performance Computing program to create a revolutionary new generation of computing systems they hope will overcome limits to the way computers are evolving now.
Increasing the performance of computers has been driven by - what's been dubbed - Moore's Law, the doubling of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit every two years. But, gains in performance will be limited by significantly greater power consumption, and programming complexity issues. The DARPA program will work to develop radically new computer architectures and programming models that are 100 to 1,000 times more energy efficient. The program directly addresses major priorities expressed by the President's "Strategy for American Innovation".